You're saying that intellectual property only exists because of government protection. I'm pointing out that this is true for other forms of property too.

Saying 'I'm not talking about a god damned laptop' doesn't change this.

I'm not talking about a god damned laptop. I'm not talking about morality or "what I think the government should be doing". I'm talking about the eventual certainty that intellectual property "rights" will be unenforceable in the (possibly near) future based on current trends. Piracy is only going up. Thus, the privilege provided by the government I initially referenced will be taken away by superior technology.

If a government was smart they would embrace this early on and learn to adapt before other countries catch on. And I guess we also get the benefit of a better and more prosperous life earlier, but that's just my opinion. Let's not get into that.

You're ignoring the fact that other forms of property are also privileges provided by the government.

I'm not at all convinced that piracy will win out given the increasing intrusiveness of governments and ISPs into network traffic. The net is built by corporations who will filter if the government tells them to even if they are not doing so for their own commercial reasons (e.g. AT&T u-verse who block torrents)

The internet itself is privilege provided by the government, as is the legal basis for the corporations that maintain it.

The internet is not a privilege. It's a thing that exists.

The internet is not a thing. It's a set of relationships between machines, themselves owned by people. These relationships and the ownership of the machines are privileges granted by the government.

Uhhhhhh..... LOL

Yeah - I know it's hard to grasp the idea that property and contracts are constructs of the state and not laws of the universe.

I get it, man. The government enforces property rights. You don't have to say it 5,000 times.

I only had to say it so many times because it defeats your argument and you acted as though it doesn't.

Property rights are a privilege. Intellectual property rights are a privilege. The internet is slowly getting rid of intellectual property rights via piracy and free software. That's my argument, and what you said does not "defeat" it, or whatever.